Hey all. I'm back with another chapter. Hope you enjoy.


Chapter 4: Paths Cross

Lapis sighed as he walked over to his uncharacteristically silent sister. It had only been a day since Trunks left, and she wasn't taking it well. Lapis would have been amazed with how quickly she'd grown attached to him if he wasn't so annoyed with the guy for leaving his sister so somber.

Which wasn't really fair. After all, he had only ever really been a guest. It's not as if he'd convinced them he was going to stay for an extended period of time, but Lazuli nevertheless had been clinging ever so faintly to the hope that he would, and he couldn't help but find it insensitive that Trunks hadn't taken that into account when he'd just gone and left.

Of course, that was without considering the fact that he would occasionally give them the cold shoulder even when he was here, and Lapis still couldn't figure out what that had been about.

God, he was so not cut out for this. Why couldn't things just be simple? He preferred living in a trailer for a reason, and it surely wasn't so he could get invested in all this drama.

But Lazuli was still his sister, and if it would take a change of scenery to take her mind off of things, then they'd be getting a change of scenery.

Besides, he thought with a smirk, they weren't as stationary as they had been just a week ago.

"Look alive, Sis!" he shouted, getting his sister's attention, and interrupting her brooding in the process. "We're flying this coup! Literally!"

Lazuli merely raised an eyebrow in a silent request for elaboration.

"Oh, don't give me that look. You know as well as I do that you we both need to move on from this dump. We've been in one place for too long, and it's getting cramped in this clearing. So effective immediately, we're moving to West City!"

She stared at him with incredulity. "You've got to be kidding. How would we even get there?"

"Weren't you listening? I said we're flying this coup! Literally! Literally literally."

She rolled her eyes. "Point taken. But we still can't afford to live in the city."

"I'll get a job."

She turned him skeptically. He sighed.

"Ok, so it's not a job job. Take a look for yourself." He held up a flier for her to see.

"The return of the World Martial Arts Tournament. Takes place the day after New Year." She looked at him in a mix of amusement and exasperation. "He taught us ki control so we could defend ourselves, and you want to abuse that training to win some prize money?"

"Pretty much. You should enter too."

Lazuli continued to stare for a lengthy moment. But slowly, a small grin began to spread out across her face. "We're actually doing this," she stated, though it was more of a question.

"Damn right!" Lapis smirked.

Lazuli couldn't help it. She laughed. "Ok, but why West City? East City is closer."

Lapis' smirk deepened. "Oh, just a feeling," he replied as he capsulated the trailer.


"Well, here we are...halfway around the world," Lazuli said with a weary sigh, as they touched down on the outskirts of West City where no one could see them. It had taken them hours to reach West City even by flight, and to say they were now tired from the exertion was an understatement. "So what was it that you wanted to show me? I would have thought you would have wanted to see where those aliens landed in East City. I never took you for a Capsule Corp fan."

"If you'd been practicing your ki sensing like I have, you'd know by now," Lapis responded.

Lazuli frowned and reached out with her senses. Her eyes widened. "That's…they're…!"

"Pretty amazing, right? They're not nearly as strong as Trunks, but they're still pretty noteworthy. And there's quite a few of them."

"All centered around Capsule Corp," Lazuli confirmed, still frowning. "I wonder where they all came from. I'm sure none of them were here when we were learning to sense ki."

"Maybe they're aliens too?" Lapis joked. "We've already been invaded once."

Lazuli shook her head. "Are you sure this is a good idea? Those guys are a hell of a lot stronger than we are."

"Oh come on, Sis! Where's your sense of adventure?"

"About a thousand miles back over the Atlantic."

"Touche. Now come on, if we move quickly, no one will spot us and wonder why there are two teenagers flying over West City." He lifted off the ground.

Lazuli simply sighed, resigned to her brother's antics, and followed after him.


Piccolo Jr, the son of the Demon King Piccolo, the second half of Earth's Guardian, and the last Namekian warrior...was confused.

He'd had a rather long day. From being wished onto Namek, to fusing with the Namekian warrior Nail, to fighting Freeza in his second form, to getting thoroughly trashed by his third and fourth forms consecutively, to nearly dying, and then being wished off of Namek, only to arrive back on Earth and finding out that Son Goku had died again

Come to think of it, had all this really taken place in one day? It was hard to tell on a planet with three suns.

But needless to say, he was getting rather tired and just wanted this giant shitfest to be over. So when he'd felt two higher than average power levels approaching West City, he couldn't hold in an annoyed grunt, one that Gohan had easily taken notice of.

But now that he focused on them, there was something strange about those two kis. Although they felt about as strong as Freeza's common thugs, their kis didn't feel malicious at all...in fact, they felt like regular humans. But that didn't seem possible. Any human with a noticeable power level on earth was either dead or accounted for. And he knew every single one.

Until now.

He was sure he didn't recognize these kis. So how could they have gone unnoticed by him up until this point? He'd only been gone for about a month.

Would this day ever end?

"Gohan," he spoke, drawing the attention of the young demi-saiyan beside him. "Expect some company."

When he noticed the stiffening of the boy's posture (and wasn't that a disturbing reaction for a five year old, he thought guiltily), he was quick to assure him. "Don't worry. They're not hostile."

Gohan relaxed. To be fair, his day has been even longer than Piccolo's own. Just another thing to add to his list of things he needed to make up for to the kid.

"Who are they," Gohan asked, pure curiosity coloring his voice now that he knew there was no threat.

"I'm not sure…" Piccolo said with a frown. "But we're about to find out."

As if in response to those words, two figures shot out of the sky, far too fast for normal eyes to keep track of, but easy for Piccolo and Gohan's trained senses to follow. They were too teenagers, one with raven black hair and the other with platinum blonde. They both had the same piercing blue eyes.

"Whoo, made it!" one, the male, said. "And I don't think anyone saw us."

"I wouldn't go that far," the other stated, as she stared worriedly at Piccolo, drawing the attention of the first towards the Namekian

"Whoa!" the teenager exclaimed. "Are you an alien?"

This caused the female to groan. When Piccolo didn't answer and simply continued observing the two, the first teenager deflated.

"Strong silent type, huh? Well, that's fine. Though I do wonder why there's a green slug man at Capsule Corp—"

"Identify yourselves," said green slug man interrupted, narrowing his eyes.

Lapis rubbed the back of his head. "Not much of a conversationalist, are you? Fine. My name is Lapis. This is my sister, Lazuli." Suddenly, he adopted a mock serious expression, holding his palms up in front of him. "We come in peace."

The joke either went over the alien's head, or was simply ignored. Judging from the nearly imperceptible tensing of his posture, as if he was annoyed, Lazuli would bet on the latter.

"Well, not that that's not great and all," said the young boy beside him. "But I think what he meant was...why exactly are you here?"

Good question, Lazuli thought.

"Good question!" Lapis said. "We were planning on moving into West City when we felt some really strong kis nearby and thought, why not introduce ourselves?"

Although Piccolo didn't seem satisfied with the explanation in the slightest, Gohan merely plastered on a friendly smile. "Oh! That's fine then. My name is Son Gohan! And this is my mentor—"

"Jr," the Namekian interrupted. "The name's Jr."

Gohan chuckled. "Right."

Neither Lapis nor Lazuli believed that for a second, but decided not to question it. Instead, Lazuli gained a thoughtful look as she stared at the boy.

"Son Gohan…" she repeated. "Hey Lapis, doesn't he look kind of like…? You know…"

Lapis' eyes widened. "Hey, you're right. Same last name, too. Hey kid, you wouldn't happen to be related to Son Goku, would you?"

Gohan's eyes gained an excited gleam. "You know my Dad?" he asked in an eager tone that made Lazuli smile lightly.

"Well, not personally. I suppose I did meet him once, but really I'm just a martial arts enthusiast who was a fan of his back in the day," Lapis replied.

Piccolo's eyes were narrowed even more now. "And when exactly did you meet him?" he asked.

It was close to a demand, but Lapis didn't seem to be bothered by the interrogation. "Oh, about a week ago. I think he sensed us training and came to investigate. It's easy to find above average kis if you focus hard enough. That's how I found you guys, after all."

Piccolo nodded thoughtfully, finally accepting the explanation. It must have been right before he left for Namek. That still didn't explain their rapid rate of growth, though. It didn't seem possible that they'd achieved it on their own. Perhaps someone had trained them? But who?

He didn't have time to put any more thought into it though, as Gohan had gotten rather excited at the prospect of meeting "friends of his Dad." He could only shake his head at the boy's lingering innocence as he led them into the compound, claiming he had to introduce them to Bulma.

"You mean we get to meet Bulma Briefs? What do you know, two celebrities in one week. Not bad, huh Sis?"

Lazuli couldn't quite keep the smile of her face. Lapis usually wasn't this optimistic, even if he was the more easygoing of the two. Even if his antics were annoying, she felt slightly touched that he was doing it in an attempt to cheer her up.

The smile vanished from her face, however, when a cold chill ran up her spine. Freezing mid step, she suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of danger.

"Well, this is a surprise." The raspy voice that spoke up from behind her made her jump. She turned around to meet the sight of a man in standing with his arms crossed, dressed in some kind of armor. He had black, gravity defying hair and an arrogant smirk on his face.

"When I sensed those two intruders I assumed you and the boy would handle it. They were rather weak after all. Imagine my surprise when I see you leading them into our base of operations. Do I need to deal with this myself?"

As he finished speaking, Lazuli felt a spike of ki that made her blood run cold. It was easy to tell that it was originating from the man in front of them. And it felt horrifying. The only ki they had ever felt that was higher than it was that of Trunks, but his ki didn't feel this evil or malevolent. It suddenly occurred to her that they may have been in over their heads coming here. Judging from the sweat dripping down Lapis' face, he was likely coming to the same conclusion.

"They're not intruders," Gohan spoke up amidst the tension, though his voice betrayed the nervousness he felt. "We invited them in ourselves, so there's no need to get hostile, Vegeta. They're friends!" The boy glared defiantly as he spoke that last part.

The man dubbed Vegeta scoffed. "So now I have to deal with more of you pathetic weaklings? I swear, it's like they're breeding. Very well, this isn't exactly worth my time anyway." With that said, he turned around and started walking away.

Lazuli was breathing heavily. "Who…was that?" she asked between pants. "He looked like he was ready to kill us!"

Finally relaxing from the battle ready position he'd been in upon Vegeta's arrival, Piccolo turned to her with a grave look. "He was," he said simply.